When Mitt Romney joined the Senate in 2018, he was mostly seen as a mainstream Republican. Now, with his one and only term coming to an end, the 77-year-old isn’t sure what the future holds for his party.

But he did caution Republicans during a news conference on Friday.

“The Republican Party, made up of working class Americans, and Republican policy positions don’t necessarily line up terribly well,” he said.

Whatever happens with the GOP, don’t expect Romney to be a part of it. His time on the political stage is over, he said on Friday.

Romney spoke during what was likely his last media availabilitwith Utah reporters as a senator, touting his decades of public service that started with his management of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and included becoming the governor of Massachusetts, a GOP nominee for President and a one term senator representing the Beehive State.

In Sept. 2023, Romney announced he would not seek reelection and this January, Republican John Curtis will leave his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and join Mike Lee to represent Utah in the Senate.

In the past six years, Romney emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal critics in the Republican Party. He was the only GOP senator who voted to convict Trump during his first impeachment in 2020, and joined seven other Republicans who voted for conviction during the second impeachment in 2021.

Yet he was often aligned with Trump on policy issues.

“I voted with him, I think, more than Senator Lee,” Romney said on Friday. “I’m a conservative and he put in place, by and large, conservative policies.”

But it was Trump’s “relaxed relationship with the truth” and a 2023 ruling that found the incoming president liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 that, among other things, “prevented me from supporting him,” Romney said.

Now, with Congress losing perhaps its last vocal critic of Trump in the GOP, Romney offered somewhat of a concession on Friday. “The Republican Party really is shaped by Donald Trump now,” he said.

Expect the House and Senate, now both controlled by Republican majorities, to follow Trump on most policy issues, Romney said.

In his six years in the Senate, Romney helped pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which channeled around $3.7 billion to Utah for water, transportation, broadband and other infrastructure; secured funding for Hill Air Force Base; sponsored bills like the Great Salt Lake Recovery Act and the Saline Lake Ecosystems in the Great Basin States Program Act, which funded studies for Utah’s beleaguered saline lake; and ended decades of negotiations between the Navajo Nation, Utah and the federal government to allow for more funding and water rights for the tribe.

As Utah Sen. Mitt Romney bids farewell, he warns against those who ‘tear at our unity’

Comparing himself ideologically to Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, Romney said the GOP’s old norms are quickly fading. During his term in the senate, Romney went from the standard bearer of his party, to persona non grata.

“I’m a narrow slice, if you will, what we used to call the mainstream Republicans. The stream has gotten a little smaller. It’s more like the main-creek Republicans now,” he said.

The 77-year-old senator couldn’t say for certain what the future of the party will be. Trump’s cabinet picks so far have been “all over the map,” he said, including former outspoken liberals like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

He’s confident Trump will “stop the immigration mess,” unsure whether he’ll be able to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., and doubtful that he’ll curb the nation’s $1.9 trillion deficit and $36 trillion debt.

He doesn’t fear retribution from a Trump Department of Justice, despite the incoming president recently suggesting members of the House Jan. 6 committee, on which he did not serve, should be imprisoned.

And whether you agree or disagree with Trump’s policies, he said, Romney expects him to “shake things up” over the next four years.

If that shakeup is successful, Romney expects incoming Vice President J.D. Vance to carry that momentum and become the next Republican presidential nominee.

Romney faults Democrats, rather than crediting Republicans, for working-class voters supporting Trump over Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and criticizes progressives for getting behind “absolutely nutty stuff.” That includes the “defund the police” movement, an “open borders” immigration policy and “biological males competing in girls sports.”

“That drove a lot of working families and minorities out of the Democratic Party,” Romney said. “The Republican Party is now the party of working-class Americans. It used to be Democrats, all the time I’ve been alive it was Democrats.”

But he seemed skeptical that Republicans could hold that base, criticizing GOP policies that “don’t necessarily line up” with the working class. The party’s reluctance to raise the minimum wage or support labor unions could give Democrats an opportunity to realign, Romney said.

Regardless of what the future of American politics is, Romney won’t be a part of it. When asked what he plans to do next, he said, jokingly, “I’ll be doing nothing.”

He might appear as an event speaker from time to time, and will likely pop up on college campuses to work with young people. He hinted at some kind of public service, referencing former President Jimmy Carter’s work with Habitat for Humanity, former Vice President Al Gore raising awareness of climate change, and former President George W. Bush’s advocacy for veterans.

But don’t expect any political endorsements or business endeavors from the outgoing senator.

“I will do things I think are going to promote the preservation of the union and the cause of freedom,” he said.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com.

Utah’s lawsuit against TikTok will move forward after a judge on Tuesday denied the social media company’s motion to dismiss.

In October 2023, Utah sued TikTok over alleged “addictive features” designed to keep children and teens on the app for as long as possible, promoting “endless scrolling” while downplaying the platform’s harm to young people.

In court documents, Utah called TikTok “digital nicotine” for young people.

The following December, TikTok filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that, among other things, argued that Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act shields the company from liability. Section 230 essentially sought to hold the speaker responsible for any harmful online speech, not the host or website, and TikTok claimed the lawsuit targeted it for publishing third-party content.

The company also said Utah’s Consumer Protection Act, which TikTok was accused of violating, was “vague” and ran afoul of the First Amendment.

But on Tuesday, Utah’s 3rd District Judge Richard Daynes denied TikTok’s motion, writing that it is “in the state of Utah’s interest in resolving this dispute.”

“The Complaint itself arises from claims of injury towards Utah residents in enforcing Utah’s Consumer Sales Practices Act. The alleged victims of the defendant’s conduct apparently includes hundreds of thousands of Utah citizens. Those citizens are alleged to use the TikTok application within the state of Utah,” Daynes writes.

Utah gets legal backup in TikTok lawsuit, as 13 states now allege harm to teen mental health

Daynes also found that Utah’s Consumer Protection Act “is not in violation of the Due Process Clause and the First Amendment.”

A TikTok spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

But Utah leaders celebrated the ruling, with Attorney General Sean Reyes saying he was “thrilled.”

“Today’s decision is a crucial step forward in our battle against the harmful practices of TikTok. We refuse to let a social media giant evade responsibility for its role in fostering addiction and exposing our children to multifarious threats. This case is all about safeguarding our kids and holding TikTok accountable for its actions,” Reyes said in a statement.

And Margaret Busse, the Utah Department of Commerce’s executive director, said the state will continue to fight what she called “deceptive practices” from social media companies.

“We are steadfast in our mission to protect our children from predatory and exploitative behavior,” Busse said in a statement.

The court heard arguments on TikTok’s motion to dismiss in September. No additional hearings have been scheduled as of Tuesday.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and X.

It might seem counterintuitive, but back-to-back winters with above-average snowfall has officials worried that this summer could bring large and dangerous wildfires to Utah.

That’s because a healthy snowpack leads to more vegetation — now, with what has been an abnormally hot and dry spring, that vegetation is drying out, making it prime kindling for a wildfire.

Chris Delainey, Utah’s fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management, said the fire conditions heading into the summer are similar to years like 2020 or 2012, when the state was subjected to devastating blazes.

“We’ve got more grass and more fuel than we’ve seen in quite some time. We’re seeing temperatures that are setting records early in June. I’m imploring folks to take this seriously,” he said. “We’re seeing conditions that line up with seasons where we’ve lost homes, we’ve seen people killed … conditions are aligning that have fire managers and fire chiefs very concerned.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called it the “perfect recipe for wildfire season.”

“You can look around here and you’ll see the fuel growth is much higher than it was two years ago,” Cox said, speaking from This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City on a hot Monday afternoon. “You can feel it. We are having above-average temperatures, a lot of heat in June. It’s much hotter than it should be this time of year.”

Cox spoke during the annual Fire Sense news conference, where officials from the Bureau of Land Management, Utah Office of Tourism and Salt Lake City Fire Department urged Utahns to be smart when recreating on the state’s public lands this summer. Roughly half of all wildfires in the state are human caused — in 2020, 4 out of 5 wildfires were triggered by people, burning over 100,000 acres in Utah.

“We desperately need people to step up,” Cox said. “Let’s be smart about what we’re doing and let’s keep Utah safe this summer.”

For Utahns, that includes adhering to the state and Forest Service’s guidelines for campfires, ensuring heavy machinery is up to code, preventing chains and other metal objects from dragging behind trailers and vehicles, and following proper protocol when target shooting, like shooting into a backstop and not using banned ammunition.

Chris Milne, assistant chief for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, said homeowners should create buffer zones heading into the summer, which is essentially the space between a home and the vegetation that can burn. Embers from a wildfire can travel over one mile, and Milne said a buffer zone can prevent new fires from starting.

“It buys you time in order to protect your home from catching on fire and being able to evacuate, if you need to,” Milne said, adding that it allows firefighters to be more effective.

Basil Newmerzhycky, lead meteorologist with the Great Basin Coordination Center, an interagency group that includes the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and state agencies, said the fire season is already picking up. Though it’s now 100% contained, the Rockville Fire in Washington County burned about 73 acres over the weekend.

The size of the Rockville Fire could spell trouble for Utah — Newmerzhycky said fires this time of the year are usually around 10 acres in size, not 50 to 100 acres. As the state continues to dry out, conditions will worsen.

“We’re expecting fire conditions to really pick up as we get into July, especially the latter half of July,” he said.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.

Utah is expected to receive about $4 million from a health marketing company that allegedly helped Purdue Pharma sell opioids, the first settlement of its kind.

On Monday, the Utah Attorney General’s Office announced a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health, a health care marketing and communications company that “encouraged, facilitated, and supported misrepresentations about the risks and benefits of opioid products” on behalf of Purdue Pharma.

That’s according to documents filed in Summit County’s 3rd District Court on Thursday, which describe how Publicis “was Purdue’s number one marketing partner, serving as Purdue’s ‘agency of record.’”

The company helped market Purdue-branded opioid products like OxyContin, Butrans and Hysingla, according to court documents.

“Publicis’s projects covered all aspects of Purdue’s marketing and sales, including designing sales strategies and tactics, maximizing the reach and influence of Purdue’s sales force, using electronic media, designing content, developing promotional messaging, drafting scripts and other materials for Purdue sales representatives,” reads a complaint filed by the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

That includes targeting prescribers who would be most likely to “prescribe large amounts of opioids.”

The settlement also requires Publicis cease all marketing “related to opioid-based Schedule II or other Schedule II narcotics.”

Of the $350 million Publicis will pay out, $3.93 million is coming to Utah, according to court records. Utah has received about $495 million in opioid settlements to date, according to data from the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

At the state level, the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee decides what to do with money received through settlements. Additional funds are divided up among counties, which choose where that money goes.

Most settlement money is required to fund abatement strategies, which include things like training and distribution of naloxone, medical assisted treatment programs, public awareness campaigns and housing support for people in recovery.

A press release from the Utah Attorney General’s Office says that money will help the “hardest-hit communities deal with the opioid crisis, build lasting infrastructure, and save lives.”

“No amount of money will ever restore the precious lives lost or destroyed by the greed of opioid manufacturers and those who helped market these drugs to an unsuspecting public. But, hopefully these funds will help Utahns access treatment, recovery and prevent many more from ever becoming trapped in the vicious cycle of opioid addiction,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a statement.

According to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, at least 4,800 Utahns have died after overdosing from a prescription opioid in the last 20 years.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.